India's innovation index ranking dips

NEW DELHI: India's innovation index ranking marginally declined to 66 in 2013 as compared to 64 in the previous year, the government today said.

"India is ranked 66th out of 142 countries/economies as per Global Innovation Index (GII (2013) co-published by Cornell University, USA, European Institute of Business Administration ( INSEAD) and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Minister for Science and Technology Jaipal Reddy said.

"India's rank as per GII 2012 was 64 out of 141 countries/economies," he said in a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

He, however, said change in the relative position in GII rank is attributed to the addition of one more country coupled with revisions and adjustements made in GII framework. This implies that year-on-year comparisons are not necessarily valid or straight forward.

"The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) has been set up by the Department of Science and Technology as an aided institute to support grassroot innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge.

"Since its inception over 1,85,000 ideas, innovations and traditional knowledge practises from over 555 districts across the country have come," Reddy said.